With the altar destroyed, the Shamans' military qi faltered at once.
Seeing the sudden turn in the battle, the Shaman Scholar nobles in the rear army showed signs of rout once again—an ancient tradition among the Shamans. Lacking the altar to anchor the vanguard's morale, fear surged back into their hearts. Surrounded by corpses on all sides, the Shaman ranks instantly fell into chaos.
At this moment, the Jade Mountain plummeted from the sky as Wei Yuan took the initiative.
A sea of light converged from Shaman sorcery surged upward. Six or seven Great Shamans struck together to intercept the Jade Mountain. When the Jade Mountain crashed into the sea of light, it sank slightly before being forcefully propped up, then dissipated.
It was hardly their first clash; both sides knew each other intimately. As his most devastating weapon for shattering battle lines and clearing a path, Wei Yuan's Jade Mountain strike had long been studied extensively by the Shamans. Neither its power nor its variations held any secrets anymore. The Shamans had even developed new sorceries specifically to counter it. This sea of light, for instance, excelled in resilience, effectively neutralizing the mountain's concussive force.
The Great Shamans chosen for the interception had also been meticulously selected, having waited for this exact moment, and they successfully prevented Wei Yuan's Jade Mountain from hitting the ground.
Yet Wei Yuan simply pressed his hand downward, and the Jade Mountain manifested once more!
This time, the Jade Mountain crashed down with even greater ferocity, forcing the sea of light to sag. But no sooner had the previous mountain vanished than another took form in midair.
If once was not enough, then twice, thrice, and more!
Wei Yuan's Dao power poured out like rushing water, draining at an alarming rate. Each manifestation of the Jade Mountain took a chunk of his reserves. Yet he did not slacken his charge in the slightest, personally leading ten thousand Dragon Wing heavy cavalry to thrust fiercely into the Shamans' flank!
After seven consecutive strikes from the Jade Mountain, the sea of light shattered with a tremendous roar. Terror washed over the faces of the seven Great Shamans. There was no time to flee; the instant the sea of light broke, all of them suffered grave injuries, and one exploded on the spot!
Within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, every immortal plant experienced a surge of growth. The one in the water that had already produced life was even more conspicuous, teetering on the verge of sprouting.
The Jade Mountain struck the ground, leaving not a blade of grass standing within a hundred zhang. In an instant, the Red Lotus Bodhi was wrapped in black karmic resentment.
Wei Yuan and the ten thousand heavy cavalry plunged straight through the breach, ruthlessly severing the vanguard from the center army!
The Jade Mountain appeared yet again, descending straight toward the Shamans' center banner. This time, no sea of light met it, but rather a bewildering array of sorceries. A giant serpent a hundred zhang long even materialized, coiling around the Jade Mountain in an attempt to drag it upward.
Yet despite their wide array of tricks, the Shamans barely managed to deflect the blow after a frantic scramble. By then, Wei Yuan had already led the heavy cavalry in a sweeping turn, aiming the spearhead directly at the center army.
From behind Ding'an City, hundreds of cylinders were hurled into the air, crashing down upon the panicked vanguard. Only now did the railguns unleash their barrage. At the same time, over a dozen fire-spitting cylinders shot out at tremendous speed toward the Shaman rear. Should these cylinders land, the rear army would inevitably suffer horrific casualties.
A furious roar echoed from beyond the sky. More than a dozen tentacles, each a hundred zhang long, reached down from the clouds. In the nick of time, they entangled the hurtling cylinders and squeezed them to detonation in midair!
However, the force of the explosions clearly exceeded the expectations of the Nether Shaman who had revealed itself. The tips of most tentacles were blown to shreds, unleashing an instant downpour of blood and flesh. Any Shaman drenched by it began emitting white smoke and collapsed in agony. The flesh and blood of a Nether Shaman were unimaginably toxic, far beyond what even Shamans could withstand.
With so many tentacles destroyed, anguished howls echoed across the sky above the clouds. At the same time, an icy, viscous, damp sensation settled over the land once more. The Nether Shaman's intervention had once again drawn the gaze of the monstrosity from beyond the sky.
The Nether Shaman's shriek rose an octave before instantly vanishing into the distance. With a thought, Wei Yuan launched several more cylinders, streaking toward the Shaman rear.
By now, the Shaman host was in utter disarray, incapable of mounting an effective defense. Although the hundreds of explosive cylinders propelled by the railguns flew at a sluggish pace, most of them landed successfully, their detonations engulfing nearly half the vanguard.
Over a dozen Great Shamans broke formation and rose into the sky to intercept Wei Yuan. Simultaneously, retreat horns sounded, and the Shaman host below began to pull back.
Without a word, Wei Yuan drew Brutal and activated the treasure's special effect. In an instant, the shadow of death fell over the minds of the intercepting Great Shamans. By instinct, they scattered to put distance between themselves and Wei Yuan.
Just then, six colossal ballista bolts shot out from Ding'an City, all homing in on the same Great Shaman!
The Great Shaman was frightened out of his wits, but with Wei Yuan glaring down at them, none dared to make a reckless move. Thus, despite desperate attempts to evade, the unfortunate Great Shaman failed to dodge the concentrated volley and was blasted apart in midair.
Wei Yuan did not ease the pressure, immediately pursuing the retreating enemy for nearly a hundred li, breaking off only when another Nether Shaman showed signs of intervening.
After the Shamans withdrew, more than a hundred thousand personnel were deployed from Qingming to clear the battlefield. The corpses of all fallen Shamans were loaded onto wagons and transported to designated disposal sites.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of craftsmen rushed to make urgent repairs to the city defenses. One severely wounded Great Shaman, ambushed during the retreat by a flying sable and stripped of his mobility, was captured alive—an unexpected windfall.
Wei Yuan immediately ordered the Great Shaman sent to the rear into the hands of Sun Yu and Xu Henshui, hoping to see if the two martial uncles, skilled in both medicine and alchemy, could pry anything out of him.
Wei Yuan ascended into the sky. As far as the eye could see, the land was littered with corpses. A dark vapor of karmic debt hung between heaven and earth, while countless stray souls wandered aimlessly through the air, having nowhere to go.
Mortal after mortal stepped out from the Jade Mountain, bewilderedly joining the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
The black waters of the Gate of the Many Realms were boiling as well. Countless Shamans appeared walking dazed across the seabed, journeying along the bottom until they finally vanished into the gate.
Wei Yuan swept his gaze across the battlefield, already aware of the battle's outcome before any official tally.
In this clash, Ding'an City's defenses were ravaged, one-third of the city-protecting grand formation was ruined, and eight thousand elite garrison soldiers had fallen—two thousand of whom belonged to the city defense corps assigned to Bao Yun. Nineteen thousand regular soldiers were slain, with thirty thousand wounded.
The Shamans had suffered seventy thousand dead, twenty thousand captured, and seventy to eighty thousand wounded. Only their rear army emerged unscathed, while their vanguard was entirely wiped out. In terms of casualties, Qingming's fifty thousand against the Shamans' one hundred and seventy thousand represented a casualty ratio lower than in any prior engagement. The primary reason lay in the Shamans' relentless bombardment using venom-filled bladders and explosive arrows, which had severely suppressed the defenders' fire. Furthermore, the giant beast ramming the gates had instantly claimed three thousand elite defenders!
Looking at the devastated battlefield, a lingering shadow weighed on Wei Yuan's heart. The changes in the Shamans this time were far too drastic. They possessed counters for almost every offensive tactic Qingming employed, and they had even stolen the secret of gunpowder.
The leak of black powder was bound to happen sooner or later. Its composition was quite simple; one did not even need to steal it—with a sample and a bit of time, deducing the formula was not difficult. Even so, the Shamans' black powder lacked the power of Qingming's, likely because their ingredient ratios had not yet been perfected.
The Shamans had originally been a race lacking in long-range firepower, relying primarily on blood curses. Now, they had not only devised explosive arrows, but also throwable venom bladders. These venom bladders had clearly taken inspiration from Qingming's railguns.
Although the quantity of these long-range weapons was still limited, Wei Yuan could already foresee future battles where sky-blotting volleys of explosive arrows and venom bladders would rain down before the two armies even met.
Fortunately, the bestowal of heaven and earth had granted the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World a modest enhancement. Unlike before, the various immortal plants now showed no restraint when snatching up the heaven-and-earth bestowal, abandoning all pretense of manners. As a result, each ended up claiming a comparable share, dividing the spoils evenly.
Only one thing puzzled Wei Yuan. As one of the earliest immortal plants, the Bingli Divine Wood was of an extremely cold nature. Yet whenever it served as a node to assist in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World's operations, Wei Yuan would still heat up, and the heavier the workload, the more heat was generated. Wei Yuan had tested this by assigning tasks to it in isolation, ultimately confirming the phenomenon.
He had not yet grasped the underlying principle, suspecting only that it might have something to do with the conservation of spiritual power.
Just then, word arrived through the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World: Sun Yu and Xu Henshui had already loosened the Great Shaman's tongue.
"So fast?" Wei Yuan was somewhat surprised. By his estimate, the Great Shaman could only have reached Xu Henshui a short while ago, scarcely more than the time it took for a stick of incense to burn. It had surrendered already?
With so many questions on his mind, Wei Yuan wasted no time and immediately made his way to Xu Henshui's residence.
Xu Henshui's courtyard had only recently been constructed and was modest in size. The Great Shaman lay dumped out in the open yard, unbound and unguarded.
This Great Shaman possessed a humanoid face, but with a protruding snout resembling a lizard or crocodile. Its entire body was clad in tough, thick hide. It was massive in stature, with a barbed tail stretching fully three zhang in length.
When Wei Yuan saw it, it was curled tightly in a corner of the yard, using its long tail to shield its body, pressing its face against the wall as it shivered uncontrollably.
Wei Yuan knew that Great Shamans resembling serpents, lizards, or crocodilians were notoriously cold-blooded and savage. Moreover, they were born with a dull sense of pain and strong regenerative abilities, making torture largely ineffective against them. Handing the wounded Great Shaman over to Xu Henshui and Sun Yu had merely been a shot in the dark.
Yet what was happening here? Why was it frightened to such a state?
Xu Henshui stepped out from the inner hall and said, "He is remarkably docile now. Ask him anything, and he will answer honestly."
At the sound of Xu Henshui's voice, the Great Shaman shuddered even more violently, almost trying to shove his face into the stone wall.
Seeing this reaction, Wei Yuan grew increasingly baffled. "Martial Uncle Xu, is he afraid of you?"
"Is that so strange? Shouldn't he be?" Xu Henshui retorted.
Wei Yuan was tempted to ask: How was it not strange? Why should he be?
Xu Henshui snorted and murmured, "Aside from those two ancestors, everyone else is quite terrified of me. Shamans are no exception."
Wei Yuan sensed an underlying meaning in Xu Henshui's words. Who were those "two ancestors"? Still, this was no time to dwell on such matters; interrogating the Great Shaman took priority.
Wei Yuan's very first question was, "Where did your gunpowder come from?"
The Great Shaman merely trembled, unable to utter a single word. Furthermore, his ear canals were tightly shut; Wei Yuan suspected the creature might not have heard him at all.
Xu Henshui frowned and commanded, "Answer honestly. Turn your head around!"
The Great Shaman shuddered all over, and a pool of liquid slowly seeped out beneath him. Xu Henshui's delicate brows shot up as he barked, "Are you playing dead?"
"N-No! I... I'll tell you everything..." It had to be said that the Great Shaman spoke the human tongue quite fluently, though his hundreds of teeth clattered together with a melodious chiming as he spoke.
"Where did your gunpowder come from?" Wei Yuan repeated.
"It came from the humans."
The answer was entirely expected. Wei Yuan pressed on, "From where, and when?"
"From Qingming. Before the Karma Great Curse."
Chapter 485